Do you remember those sweaty, 250lb women, wearing crop tops, and flying by on roller skates? They called it Roller Derby!
Lots of pushing and shoving. Once in awhile one of the women would pop another with a fist to the face as they rolled by.
Fun times. It’s basically pro wrestling on wheels.
Was it scripted too? Were most of the punches faked too? The hard shoves seemed real.
Except, no matter how much scuffling occurred. The halter tops and shorts never budged. LOL They didn’t want to get in trouble for showing too much skin.
Jim Croce immortalized the uh sport? or whatever it was.
Most of those leagues had men’s and women’s teams but the women sold better. It wasn’t scripted like pro wrestling is today, but neither was pro wrestling back then. In both the outcome was pre-determined, the rest was mostly improvised.
I went to Los Angeles Thunderbird games in the early 80s. There were men and women on the teams who took turns. The opponent was, to my recollection, always the Chicago Bombers. The Thunderbirds always scored a come from behind victory in the final round. It was a hoot. Similar characters to pro wrestling and just as much of an act.
Yep, Roller Derby is still active in a lot of areas. Minnesota Roller Derby is even hosting a national tournament in a couple of weeks in St.Paul.
They feature the local team every once in a while on those Saturday morning local interest news pieces and have some of the ladies come on and mean-mug for the cameras.
People playing roller derby now very obviously isn’t what the OP is talking about. There is a real competitive game based on the put on entertainment thing from the past.
There is a lengthy article about roller derby on Wikipedia. It’s been around far longer than I realized, and has had movements both toward and away from “skating phony”, or faked sports entertainment influences.
I had no idea that it went back to the 19th Century either to be honest. Regardless, the 1970s era televised Roller Derby Queen in the Croce song and the recollection of the OP and the events that I attended were definitely in the fake times.
At one time, I was in a few community theater plays with one of the skaters. She no longer participates, but her name is listed on their page of Retired Skaters.
I only watched in the 1970’s and early 80’s. It was silly and exciting entertainment. I always wanted to see it live. I did attend a couple pro wrestling matches.
Taking a body check on roller skates isn’t easy. There’s some athleticism required.
I couldn’t find any from video the 1970’s. The clip I posted was from 2011.
I also have vague memories of a show called RollerJam, which aired on The Nashville Network from 1999 to 2001. The teams had both men and women participants. It was definitely in the cheesy fake competition class, with over-the-top characters and ongoing storylines.
Although I don’t remember this detail, the wikipedia articles says that they even did some cross-promotion with one of the professional wrestling shows that also aired on TNN at the time.
Oh, joy! I see that all three seasons are available on YouTube!
Women-only roller derby is a relatively new thing, and, for the most part, it is legitimate.
What most people consider “roller derby” had both men and women on each team; usually, there are 8 periods in a game, alternating between women and men.
I am familiar with three separate organizations:
One had the Bay Bombers (San Francisco) and Midwest Pioneers as two of the teams. From what I have read, for the most part, this was legitimate competition.
Another had the Los Angeles T-Birds; this was almost certainly scripted the way that professional wrestling is.
The third was “Rollergames,” which lasted about a season on syndicated TV; this was even more scripted than the previous version.
Interesting brief revival of the conventional Sports/Entertainment version of the game. Just not all that good. Far too much emphasis on the characters.
There is still some retention of the Entertainment side that I’ve seen and heard about. There has to be a lot of mutual concern for safety like in pro wrestling or the game would be too dangerous to play. So they have to ‘sell’ the bumps and falls to the audience to keep them interested.
